A Man Fired for Playing With Kings and Queens Has a Name Fit for Royalty

In the beginning there was Édouard-Etienne de Nevers, sieur de Brantigny, later known as Édouard Boisvert. He immigrated to Quebec from France and in 1654 settled along the St. Lawrence on a prime plot he bought for a cow and two barrels of pickled eel.

In the middle was Édouard Antoine Boisvert V, who moved down to Massachusetts and Anglicized the family name to Greenwood.

Today, history lives on near Albany, N.Y., where Edward Anthony Greenwood IX, late of the New York City Office of State Legislative Affairs, became nationally famous two days ago as the man who was fired after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spotted a game of solitaire on his computer screen.

To some, Mr. Greenwood has become a symbol of arbitrary injustice, dismissed for doing what millions do every day. Others who are less charitable have called him the living embodiment of the public employee work ethic.

The executive director of the National Genealogical Society, Diane O'Connor, said she had never run across anyone higher than a V. "Off the top of my head," she said, "I would say that it is unusual."

She did not, however, rule it out, and researchers at the University of Montreal said that many French Canadians can trace their roots back a dozen generations, thanks to excellent record-keeping by the early settlers.

Edward IX said he had never doubted his bloodline. His half sister, Denise Reneau, who researched the family's history, said she was sure the numerical claim is legitimate. Their father, Edward VIII, said carrying on the family name had been a passion of Edward VII, an uncle who had no children of his own.

So assuming that the Edward Greenwood/Boisverts are indeed that rare family that has kept a name alive for centuries, and across an ocean, what have they been up to all these years? And what is it like being a IX?

Edward IX said that for most of his life, it has not been a big deal. "A lot of times people see IX and just put IV because they think it's a V, not an X, or that I wrote it wrong," he said.

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As for the family history, the Greenwood/Boisverts turn out to be your average American family. In 1888, Ms. Reneau said, Edward V's estranged wife had him over for tea and forgot to rinse out the lye she had used to clean the kettle. "Supposedly she killed him," she said.

A relative, Chester Greenwood of Maine, invented earmuffs. Edward VI had nine children. Edward VII was a chief petty officer in World War II who, Ms. Reneau said, survived the sinking of an aircraft carrier thanks in part to the fishing skills he inherited from his great-great-great-great grandfather the eeler.

Edward VII's brother Arthur was the first chiropractor in Pittsfield, Mass., to have an X-ray machine. "He loved to stand in front of it to show his patients how you could see your ribs and all that," Edward VIII said. "Needless to say he died from overexposure."

Edward VIII, 66, himself was a railroad conductor for 30 years and an accomplished bluegrass musician.

Which brings us to Edward IX, 39, of Ravena, N.Y., who is also a gifted bluegrass guitarist and singer, but that's not all. He is a trained operating-room technician, a certified airplane mechanic and a former Greyhound bus driver. He is a member of a single-malt Scotch society. He knows quite a bit about cheese.

"I've been referred to as a renaissance man," he said.

As of yesterday, though, he was the former sole breadwinner for a family of three, freshly unemployed and uninsured. His son, Edward X, age 3 1/2, sat in the next room, watching an old Superman episode on TV.

Edward IX said he hoped that out of all this publicity he might get a job. He was asked if the illustrious numeral might help his résumé.

"Maybe that'll be a bolster to my cachet," he said.

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A version of this article appears in print on February 11, 2006, on Page B00002 of the National edition with the headline: Never Mind the Solitaire; Explain What the IX Is For. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe